Jazzerman gives a nice summary of the history, again, the background for this being a hoax. It's not an ancient manuscript, but dates from the 1600's.

Originally posted by Jazzerman
The earliest mention of the book was in a mid-17th Century letter from Georg Baresch (an Alchemist) to Athanasius Kircher (cryptographer who deciphered Heiroglyphic texts), and shortly thereafter Kircher was given the book and for about 200 years there was no further historical records of the Manuscript until around 1912 when Wilfrid Voynich bought it....

As for the Voynich Manuscript, it seems to be a quite odd coincidence that a man such as Georg Baresch, an Alchemist himself, was the first documented possessor of this script and that the illustrations are very Alchemical in nature. There is no documented proof of the existance of the Manuscript before his letters and thus anyone investigating where the Manuscript came from is left with no further information precluding his ownership. I have always had the feeling that the Manuscript was a hoax or "gag" if you will that Baresch was playing on Kircher. Kircher was one of the most notorious Cryptographers of his day (although most of his suppositions are now considered to be wrong and were usurped by Descartes shortly after his time) and a leader in the field of Egyptology. By the standards of the day he was considered to be the scientific equal of Leonardo Da Vinci, and there would be good reason for someone to try and take him down from his pedestal as the pinnacle of scientific reasoning. I will put forth the idea that Baresch created the document to try and hide the failings of his own brand of "science", by trying to make a fool of one of the leading scientists of the day: Kircher.

Not a bad speculation.

For those of you not familiar with this, the field of language studies is part of what points to it as a hoax. Languages have repeatable bits in them (nouns, verbs, etc) and they follow a certain pattern of sentence structure. You can see this even if you're not familar with the language.

It's the cryptographers and linguists who have said it's a hoax. Fake books have always been around and were a source of income for the unscrupulous ("No, seriously, Thomas. This is the diary that Jesus kept when he was in the wilderness. Would I lie to you?") This is one of the more famous historical frauds...but there have been many.

where can I get a copy of Jesus's Diary ?

I have money

I reckon that the most likely culprit was Edward Kelley or possibly Roger Bacon (not the guy who some believe to have authored the works of Shakespeare, that was Francis Bacon - different bloke). There is some evidence that it was once in the possession of Emperor Ferdinand II (IIRC) and it would likely be Dee & Kelley that he got it from - the idea of it being a fraud to get money out of a very wealthy collector would fit with that scenario just fine.

There is a reasonably good book on the history of the manuscript - 'The Voynich Manuscript' by Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill. They examine the history of the manuscript and various theories concerning its origin, sufficient to give a good grounding for anyone newly interested in it anyway and it's quite readable.

Originally posted by ben91069
Your link is not working.

But, could it be from the days before Adam? If man was made in the image of God, that would make him eternal, but woman was made from the side of man or from his rib. She could have existed for eons before a physical man.

Just some wild thoughts to throw at you.

Ho-hum - more religeous loonies...

Originally posted by ben91069
Your link is not working.

But, could it be from the days before Adam? If man was made in the image of God, that would make him eternal, but woman was made from the side of man or from his rib. She could have existed for eons before a physical man.

Just some wild thoughts to throw at you.

Oh jeez....yawn.

J.

Originally posted by lostinspace
It looks like Nature worship. The naked women might be witches or sorceress.

Could it be the work of a pre-flood, materialized, angel who married human women and was later banished for the offence? These angels would not have cared about the human men of that era. There would have been one common language before the flood that would have been lost at the Tower of Babel. Nothing like that would have survived the flood, that was from the rebels, so it must be a channeled work.

HUh??????????

J.